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The Effect of a Primary Care Practice–Based Depression Intervention on Mortality in Older Adults
- Joseph J. Gallo, MD, MPH;
- Knashawn Morales, ScD;
- Edward Post, MD, PhD;
- Hillary Bogner, MD, MCSE;
- Julia Lin, PhD; and
- Martha Bruce, PhD, MPH
- From the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
IN RESPONSE:
We appreciate Drs. Thombs and Ziegelstein's observation that our study was of great importance in reporting the beneficial effect of a depression intervention on mortality. Drs. Thombs and Ziegelstein were concerned that the post hoc selection of covariates for inclusion only if they were associated with the outcome led to overfitting and ignored the issue of confounding. We had a prespecified approach to identifying and including potential confounders because we knew that imbalances would be likely and that adjustment with patient-level …
